‘Russia should be banned from 2018 Winter Olympics’

London, Jan 8 (IANS) United Kingdom Anti-Doping (UKAD) agency chief David Kenworthy has said Russia should be banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korean city of Pyeongchang.

Kenworthy also said that Russian athletes should have been banned from the 2016 Summer Olympics too, reports Sputnik.

“Yes, I think they (Russia) should (be banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics). I think they should have been banned from the Olympics in the summer. The International Paralympic Committee, in my view, got it right — they banned Russia. I think the IOC (International Olympic Committee) made a complete muck-up of it,” Kenworthy was quoted as saying by the BBC news on Saturday.

He added that all that incident “was debasing all of sport.”

“We’re still getting denials of any wrongdoing and strange statements about whether it was state-sponsored or not — what we now need to do is get Russia back in the fold, and that is taking some considerable time and effort,” Kenworthy said.

The doping scandal, simmering since 2014, escalated in July 2016 when the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) presented a report accusing Russia of running a state-wide doping programme and urging the IOC to consider a blanket ban on the entire Russian Olympic team. The IOC instead let individual sports federations act on the issue.

As a result, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) banned Russian athletes from taking part in international competitions, including the 2016 Summer Olympics. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) later banned all Russian Paralympic athletes from the 2016 Summer Paralympics and the 2018 Winter Games.

On December 9, WADA Independent Commission headed by Richard McLaren issued the second part of the report on alleged Russian doping abuse, revealing manipulations by athletes in 30 sporting disciplines.